She and Allan eBook

“Do you mean that you are the goddess Isis?”
I asked, bewildered. “Because if so why
did you tell me that you were but her priestess?”

“Have it as thou wilt, Allan. All sounds
do not reach thine ears; all sights are not open to
thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf and
blind. Perchance now that her shrines are dust
and her worship is forgot, some spark of the spirit
of that immortal Lady whose chariot was the moon,
lingers on the earth in this woman’s shape of
mine, though her essence dwells afar, and perchance
her other name is Nature, my mother and thine, O Allan.
At the least hath not the World a soul—­and
of that soul am I not mayhap a part, aye, and thou
also? For the rest are not the priest and the
Divine he bows to, oft the same?”

It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is
a knave or a self-deceiver, but I did not.

“Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha’s benison
go with thee. Safe shalt thou reach thy home,
for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy companions
with thee. Safe shalt thou live for many a year,
till thy time comes, and then, perchance, thou wilt
find those whom thou hast lost more kind than they
seemed to be to-night.”

She paused awhile, then added,

“Hearken unto my last word! As I have said,
much that I have told thee may bear a double meaning,
as is the way of parables, to be interpreted as thou
wilt. Yet one thing is true. I love a certain
man, in the old days named Kallikrates, to whom alone
I am appointed by a divine decree, and I await him
here. Oh, shouldest thou find him in the world
without, tell him that Ayesha awaits him and grows
weary in the waiting. Nay, thou wilt never find
him, since even if he be born again, by what token
would he be known to thee? Therefore I charge
thee, keep my secrets well, lest Ayesha’s curse
should fall on thee. While thou livest tell naught
of me to the world thou knowest. Dost thou swear
to keep my secrets, Allan?”

“I swear, Ayesha.”

“I thank thee, Allan,” she answered, and
grew silent for a while.

At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the
full of her height, stood there majestic. Next
she beckoned to me to come near, for I too had risen
and left the dais.

I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over
me as though in blessing, then pointed towards the
curtains which at this moment were drawn asunder,
by whom I do not know.

I went and when I reached them, turned to look my
last on her.

There she stood as I had left her, but now her eyes
were fixed upon the ground and her face once more
was brooding absently as though no such a man as I
had ever been. It came into my mind that already
she had forgotten me, the plaything of an hour, who
had served her turn and been cast aside.

CHAPTER XXIII

WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW

Like one who drams I passed down the outer hall where
stood the silent guards as statues might, and out
through the archway. Here I paused for a moment,
partly to calm my mind in the familiar surroundings
of the night, and partly because I thought that I
heard someone approaching me through the gloom, and
in such a place where I might have many enemies, it
was well to be prepared.